Are you a parent who allows your child to sleep with you? Young children hear the strange noises of a house settling at night, and they wonder what the noises are. They worry about monsters in the closet or under the bed. With all of their worrying, some comforting may be needed. The comforting may come in the form of allowing the child to sleep with you in your bed. Do not make this mistake, however. He belongs in his own bed.

One reason why the child needs to be in his own bed is because people are often not completely aware of what they do in their sleep. If you roll over during the night, you could roll over on top of him.

Second, you might have a dream and begin thrashing around in your sleep. You might be dreaming about going running at sunrise the following morning, for example. In your dream, you see the sun come up over the horizon as you run to Blondie's "Maria". You have a great four minute and ten second run while enjoying an awesome sunrise. In your sleep, you might accidentally hit or kick your child.

Finally, the worry that you might do something in your sleep will cause you to sleep poorly. As a result of poor sleep, you will have difficulty performing the next day. You may be slow or forgetful after your rough night. If you are a blogger, for example, you may only have enough energy to write one article, as opposed to two or three articles. Your readers will be eagerly awaiting more articles and wondering when they will get to read your next one.

A much better idea is to have the child sleep in his own bed. Have a bedtime ritual that will help the child to calm down and get ready to go to sleep. You might read him a story, for example. He might want to have a nightlight in the room. The nightlight would provide just enough light for him to see that there are no bogeymen in the room with him but not enough light to interfere with his sleep. He can sleep with the bedroom door open or closed, whichever he would prefer. When he is finally settled in bed and ready to go to sleep, you can kiss him goodnight and leave the room.

With this arrangement, you will have a better night. You can have a cup of cocoa, plan your articles for the next day, go to bed before midnight, and sleep soundly.